Tag Archive: insulation

Having insulation for your home is incredibly important, and a very important way to ensure that you minimize your carbon footprint and your energy bill at the end of each month. Insulation basically refers to any material used in a property to trap heat and to keep it in the building. If you have insulation in your floor for instance then this will prevent the hot air from escaping. At the same time this simultaneously prevents the cold air from getting in to your property. You also get insulation in wall cavities and other parts of properties.

Insulation in the roof or floor is particularly important however because it will prevent the warm air from escaping through the top of your home. This is an important precaution as anyone with a little bit of scientific knowledge should remember that heat rises to areas of lower pressure. If you don’t have insulation then your heat will simply fill the house, and then rise up and out of the home into the night…

Another reason that roof or floor insulation is so important is that it can help to prevent the cold form effecting your property through the floor. It can prevent breezes getting in for instance, but at the same time it can also combat still water standing on the roof. If you get a lot of rain in a short amount of time on a flat roof, then this can sometimes pool on top of the roof, and this will then steel the heat energy from your property in order to be able to evaporate away again. This is also a problem with condensation.

There are many different kinds of insulation for your properties which you can use in order to protect your energy bill and keep the heat inside your building. These include some forms of insulation that effect the floor (on the underside) and some that effect the roof.

For instance if you have a sloped roof then you are likely to have a large loft space between your top floor and the roof. This then gives you plenty of space where you can place insulation bats – large blocks of fiber glass and other materials that can prevent the heat from escaping through them.

On the other hand it is also possible to get roof insulation on the top of the roof. This can come in the form of coated tiles, or metal or other material added to the roof in such a way as to keep the warm air in and deflect the cold.

Insulation bats here is your cheaper option and this is something you can often do yourself (unless you have a very small attic space and need a roofer). However in some cases you will need to use roof insulation instead – for instance if you have a flat roof with no real space for floor insulation, or if your property is prone to fire (because floor insulation is very flammable). If for instance you are using certain types of lighting in your floor, then this might get too hot to use insulation bats near.

Maximize Insulation and Reduce Your Carbon Footprint – If you are environmentally conscious, you would be trying to reduce the consumption of energy to heat your home or business location and reduce your carbon footprint. One of the ways to do this is by making sure the loft and the walls of your dwelling or workplace are well insulated. Your insulation contractors should be able to give you a good estimate for an ideal insulation job to minimize this footprint.

Heat Leakage through the roof

A large amount of heat loss happens through the roof. It is estimated that up to a quarter of the heat loss happens through the roof. So, loft insulation must be a major item in your insulation list. This is a direct addition to the carbon footprint in terms of the lost fuel energy. Insulation contractors who are effective will focus on how best to reduce this loss and add to your savings in the power bill. From their viewpoint, this kind of insulation needs to be easy to install. The thickness of insulation that needs to be used for the loft should be at least 8 inches in thickness. Any competent contractor will be able to get the insulation installed when you are doing a new construction, or room additions or kitchen remodeling.

Insulating the walls

Compared to the 25% heat loss through un-insulated roof, walls tend to lose up to 35% of the heat produced inside the building. The insulation contractors you hire should be knowledgeable in installing cavity walls for its effectiveness. Cavity walls are a simple and effective way of reducing your energy bills. The saving made through good wall insulation can cover your investment in insulation in about five years. Many government grants are available that help reduce the carbon footprint. If you can access such a program, you recouping the costs can be even earlier. Be aware that new construction may not be eligible for such grants, subsidies or loans.

Gauging the feasibility

First thing to check would be whether insulations can actually be installed easily. For cavity walls, what’s needed is setting up two walls separated by 12 inches of air gap. The contractor you employ should be able to tell you if the insulation material has a low carbon footprint. He will be able to devise, a minimum transportation cost method to get the material to the construction site, which will further minimize the carbon footprint.